<table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" border="0" ><tr><td valign="top" style="font: inherit;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Join us tomorrow, 2 pm, Devon & Leavitt, as we join with the Pakistani community to say Enough! Basta Ya! to wars for empire at home & abroad! Bring your own signs and banners and if you want to make some, come by Acme Art Works at 1741 N. Western Ave at 7 pm where World Can't Wait will have a banner-making party. </span><br><br><div><strong>Immigrant Peace Activists to Obama: End War at Home and Abroad</strong></div>
<div>Chris Geovanis, Chicago IMC [ <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://chicago.indymedia.org/newswire/display/84150/index.php">http://chicago. indymedia. org/newswire/ display/84150/ index.php</a> ]<br>
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<div class="caption">Pakistani community leaders Raja Yaqub, Said Umar Khan and Ifti Nasim meet with representatives of Senator Barack Obama.</div>
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CHICAGO – Peace activists from Chicago's Pakistani-American community
and anti-war groups from the metro Chicago region convened an emergency
press conference on Thursday, October 9 at 11AM in front of the
Kluczynski Federal Building at 230 S. Dearborn, to urge an end to U.S.
military policy abroad – including U.S. attacks inside Pakistan's
border, and more broadly, U.S. war military aggression throughout the
region.<br>
<br>
The immigrant group representatives also raised alarms about ongoing
attacks on the civil liberties and human rights of immigrants at home,
whose children are often welcomed as military enlistees while their
relatives are criminalized as 'illegal' or insufficiently 'American'. <br>
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At the conclusion of the press conference, activists delivered a letter
expressing those sentiments to U.S. Senator Barak Obama, who has
offices in the Kluczynski Building. Mr. Obama is a particular focus of
their concern, given his standin
g as the potential next President of the United States, and his avowed
support for U.S. military incursions into Pakistan – a stand he
reiterated in his Tuesday debate with John McCain, to the dismay of
Pakistani-Americans and peace activists across the country.<br>
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<div class="caption">Yaqub, Khan and Nasim hand a letter to Obama representatives Scott Hooks and Joan M. Currie-Leonard.</div>
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"We know that the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq has been a
disaster, for both the Iraqi people and the American people, whatever
the spinmasters may say" said <b>Ifti Nasim</b>,
a respected poet who is an activist in both the Pakistani and LGBT
communities. "It was deeply disturbing on Tuesday to see both Mr.
McCain and Mr. Obama essentially embrace exactly the same policy that
the Bush administration has advanced in the last eight years, to the
great pain and suffering of literally millions of people. This policy
approach must be challenged."<br>
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<div class="caption">Ifti Nasim reports back on the meeting with representatives Senator Obama.</div>
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Members of Chicago's Pakistani-American community argue that U.S.
military bombings in Pakistan have killed hundreds of civilians,
exacerbated the larger conflict in the region, and displaced hundreds
of thousands of Pakistani civilians within their own country, creating
huge human suffering among the population of one of the United States'
most loyal allies.<br>
<br>
"Recent U.S. military attacks inside the Pakistani border have been
devastating for the civilian population," said community leader <b>Raja Yaqub</b>.
"This policy is creating hundreds of thousands of internal refugees,
turning people against the United States, and creating a humanitarian
crisis just as winter begins that could take thousands of lives."<br>
<br>
On Saturday, Chicago’s Pakistani community will host peace groups from
across the metropolitan area at a rally and march as part of a
nationwide day of action for peace that marks the sixth anniversary of
Congress's "blank check" authorization for war on Iraq. That action is
is being organized by a broad coalition of local peace groups around
two central demands: a call to bring the troops home now and a demand
to end attacks and mass deportations in immigrant communities across
Chicago. <br>
<br>
"As immigrants in America, we've been the target of much misunderstanding and mistreatment in the last eight
years," said Pakistani-American community leader <b>Said Umar Khan</b>
of the Pakistani Federation of America. "Just as attacks on immigrants
in this country are based on grievous – and dangerously misguided –
misunderstanding about the people and politics of South Asia and
throughout the globe, the U.S. military policy to bomb targets within
Pakistan is based on the same type of distorted perceptions and
indifference to the human suffering these policies cause."<br>
<br>
Activists argue that both U.S. policy toward immigrants at home and
U.S. military policy abroad create tremendous human suffering, do
nothing to undercut the root causes of conflict in the region, and will
only create greater hardship for the people of Pakistan and the larger
region. They argue that it is time U.S. policy was conducted with
wisdom and compassion instead of brute force and narrow self-interest.<br>
<br>
The letter activists delivered to Mr. Obama urged him to reconsider his
position, arguing that people in Pakistan and throughout the region are
hungry for progressive change – and that his current position
represents instead more of the same military approach also embraced by
George Bush and John McCain.<br>
<br>
Many of the groups organizing for this Saturday's protest have
mobilized in the past to oppose the war, including the mass protest
when the war began on March 20, 2003. Organizers have vowed to target
leaders of both major national political parties, in the wake of John
McCain's staunch support for expanded U.S. military aggression in the
region and Illinois favorite son Barak Obama's embrace of pre-emptive
U.S. attacks within Pakistan's borders. <br>
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++++++++++++ +++++++++ +++++++++ +++++++++ +++++++++ +<br>
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<div class="caption">Letter to Barack Obama from Pakistani community and other peace activists.</div>
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<b><font size="3"><font color="#ff0000">Text of Letter Delivered to Senator Obama</font></font></b><br>
<br>
October 9, 2009<br>
<br>
The Honorable Barak Obama<br>
U.S. Senator, the State of Illinois<br>
John C. Kluczynski Federal Office Building<br>
230 South Dearborn St.<br>
Suite 3900, 39th floor<br>
Chicago, Illinois 60604<br>
<br>
Dear Senator Obama:<br>
<br>
We write as peace activists, including many of us who hail from
Chicago’s dynamic Pakistani American community. We write with a simple
and urgent message: to call upon you to end U.S. war at home and abroad.<br>
<br>
We are particularly concerned with your public pronouncements earlier
this week in support of violating the borders of our ally, the country
of Pakistan, by bombing targets within this nation. Just as immigrants
within this nation have been the victims of a pernicious war at home
that has targeted immigrants for abuse and worse because of their e
thnicity or race, now civilians within Pakistan are feeling the direct
consequences of U.S. war abroad – through a growing pattern of military
attacks that has devastating consequences for civilians throughout the
region. <br>
<br>
We feel compelled to raise alarms about ongoing attacks on the civil
liberties and human rights of immigrants at home. Ironically, at the
same time that our children are often welcomed as enlistees to the U.S.
military machine, their relatives are often criminalized as 'illegal'
or insufficiently 'American'. <br>
<br>
You stand on the cusp of a truly historic election, one in which a
person of color may finally assume the highest office of this land. As
the potential next President of the United States, you must understand
the sweeping dismay that your avowed support for U.S. military
incursions into Pakistan – a stand you reiterated in your Tuesday
debate with your opponent John McCain – has elicited among untold
numbers of Pakistani-Americans and peace activists across the country.<br>
<br>
We know that the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq has been a
disaster, for both the Iraqi people and the American people. It was
deeply disturbing on Tuesday to see both you and your opponent
essentially embrace exactly the same policy that the Bush
administration has advanced in the last eight years, to the great pain
and suffering of literally millions of people. This policy approach
must be challenged.<br>
<br>
The reality is that U.S. military bombings in Pakistan have killed hund
reds of civilians, exacerbated the larger conflict in the region, and
displaced hundreds of thousands of Pakistani civilians within their own
country, creating huge human suffering among the population of one of
the United States’ most loyal allies. People on the ground in Pakistan
– our beloved families and friends – are stunned, horrified, and truly
appalled at this turn in U.S. policy on the people of a nation that has
long been a friend to the United States and to the American people.<br>
<br>
The devastation caused by recent U.S. military attacks inside the
Pakistani border is creating hundreds of thousands of internal
refugees, turning people against the United States, and just as winter
begins, creating a humanitarian crisis that could take thousands of
lives.<br>
<br>
Just as attacks on immigrants in this country are based on grievous –
and dangerously misguided – misunderstandings about the people and
politics of South Asia and throughout the globe, the U.S. military
policy to bomb targets within Pakistan is based on the same type of
distorted perceptions and indifference to the human suffering that
these policies cause. It is a policy that is rooted in folly and
indifference to human suffering. It is a policy that must be reversed.<br>
<br>
U.S. policy toward immigrants at home and U.S. military policy abroad
create tremendous human suffering, does nothing to undercut the root
causes of conflict in the region, and will only create greater hardship
for the people of Pakistan and the larger region. It is time U.S.
policy was conducted with wisdom and compassion instead of brute force
and narrow self-interest. We urge you to reconsider your position,
remembering that people in Pakistan and throughout the region are
hungry for progressive change – and that your current position
represents instead more of the same military approach also embraced by
George Bush and John McCain.<br>
<br>
We look forward to meeting with you to discuss this matter further, and enclose our contact information with this letter.<br>
<br>
Sincerely, </div>
<div class="cleardiv"> </div><br><br><div id="RTEContent"><div id="RTEContent"><div><strong> </strong><em></em><span style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-style: italic;"><span style="color: rgb(255, 0, 0);">Declare It Now! Wear Orange!</span><br>Impeach Bush & Cheney for War Crimes<br>& Crimes against Humanity!<br></span></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 127, 64); font-weight: bold;"></span></div></div></div></td></tr></table><br>